http://www.ipetitions.com/petition/algore2008/

Congratulations to Al Gore on winning the Nobel Peace prize!

Location, location, location.

Where do live and where do you work? These are questions those who wish to reduce their impact should ask.

Personally, I make a point to live and work in close enough places together where I can walk to work. Great for my health, and I'm in the perfect position to tell both tree hugging hippies and SUV driving yuppies to shove it. Gaze on my low carbon out-put and weep, biatches.

I live in a small - medium sized town, and am fortunate enough to be a able to walk everywhere. The office where I work is 2 blocks from my apartment, the campus where I take classes is a 5 - 10 minute walk away, and theres a grocery store 5 blocks away. There are a few good watering holes within a five minute walk, temptation to drive drunk is practically non existent. The best part, there's a trail-head to a major trail that allows one to hike hundreds of miles in either direction within a ten minute walk from my door. The old railroad grade is such easy walking that in the summer, you see mothers pushing strollers miles out from town in the afternoons. It's been almost a week since I last drove anywhere.

Life is good. If there is any one piece of advice I could give people, it's make yourself as auto-un-reliant as possible. I'm not saying you should shun vehicles, just that you're life will be more fun if you reduce your dependence on them.

I'm also a big fan (and I've seen you mention this before too Chovy) of telecommuting. I think it's a great idea on a number of levels. It's nice not burning up gas every day, much cheaper. The quality of the work experience is often very good for the employee and the employer. Some people can be quite productive in the comfort of their own home. If someone has kids, I think it's great for them to be home in the day, even if their kids know not to disturb them when they're working. It's very good for kids to see people working. It provides a positive role model.

So, now you can actually get work done on your way to work?

That's pretty cool, no rest for the weary though.

I've had a few jobs where I had to travel over an hour each way. The time it sucks is when you don't have anyone to ride with you. The gas bill also starts to stack up. I had an hour and 15 minute (but variable depending on the job site) drive to work five days a week when Katrina hit. If you drive a long distance to work, you really feel it when gas prices jump.

I remember you posted an idea about telecommuting incentives (tax breaks) for businesses. It's a great idea, a win-win situation. I'm also a big fan of public transportation systems. Road construction is a paradox. Urban planners will wrestle with it, knowing that it's the way to free up congestion, but that new roads will attract more drivers. I think the psychological effects of spending 10+ hours a week driving to work are underestimated by some people too. I didn't realize how terrible it was on my nerves until I didn't have to deal with it anymore.

sure, i think if telecommuting 1 day a week would reduce traffic congestion by a lot.

I "choose" in the sense that I only work for companies that allow me to telecommute a few days a week. I have a bad neck and driving is both expensive on gas/medical bills, and causes me pain, plus is a complete and utter waste of time.

I live about an hour from silicon valley, so I do have an opportunity to take public transit as well, just takes about 2 hours -- on the other hand I can read/sleep, surf the web, instead of dealing with idiots on the road.

Carpooling is another option, facebook has a group for it where you can find out people in your area, and what they're into -- I personally don't want to have to rely or be responsible for someone else, which is why I haven't done carpooling yet.

Sure, there are professions that require a certain amount of driving. For those of use lucky enough to have a "cush" job where we sit in a cubical -- we can easily reduce our impact by taking public transit (even just one day a week, as long as its consitent) or working from home (when possible) will have a huge impact.

The first thing I had to get over was 1 hour commute vs. 2 hour commute when comparing ideal drive time and public transit. I quickly realized the benefit of not having to drive -- I read on the route, and the local system even has free wifi on many of its buses. 2 hours of free time to surf the web or read is better than 1 hour of useless driving.

The only problem with this idea is that it assumes that the extra day will be spent at or very close to the house (or at least very minimal driving). I used to work for a company that did 4 10's. We had the option to work Friday and even Saturday. I usually worked about half of the Fridays, when I didn't it was usually because I wanted to go somewhere out of town to see music or to visit friends.

Either way, I'm a fan of ten hour days. They're more efficient.

Usually, it's more profitable for the company as well. If you've ever broken a typical eight hour day at the office down to fifteen minute intervals of what got accomplished and how much time was spent with daily routine stuff, you've probably been amazed at how inefficient it can be. Those extra two hours have a very good work/routine daily stuff ratio.

I guess a lot of people wouldn't go anywhere on that extra day off, so it probably would cause less exhaust. Also, I do like the idea that if the exhaust output isn't going to be lowered in a certain case, at least more of it will go to having fun than getting to work.